Unsafe food products are among the primary causes of emergency visits and hospital stays across the country. A single food item prepared, packed, or served in an unsanitary way can result in adverse health reactions. While cases of food poisoning almost always go away without life-long complications, they can be particularly dangerous for those who are vulnerable, like pregnant women and those who are suffering from chronic illnesses.

Listeriosis, or listeria disease, is one of the most commonly reported types of food poisoning in the U.S. According to the website of Law Offices of Ronald J. Resmini, LTD., food manufacturers have the responsibility of ensuring that food packages released in the market were manufactured, packed, and delivered in a way that is safe from listeria contamination; and failure to do so could put consumer’s health and safety in great jeopardy.

Healthy individuals suffering from listeriosis may experience muscle ache, fatigue, and gastrointestinal disorders, such as diarrhea and vomiting. While these symptoms often go away with standard treatment, individuals with immunocompromising illnesses (such as HIV) may experience more serious health diseases, such as septicaemia (infection of the bloodstream) and meningitis (inflammation of the lining of the brain). Furthermore, pregnant women exposed to listeria are more prone to miscarriage, preterm labor, and still birth.

Because some of listeria’s complications are fatal, it is important to seek medical attention if you experience listeriosis symptoms and if you suspect that you have been exposed to contaminated food product. Furthermore, you should be extra careful in preparing your meal so as to keep contamination at bay. The Food and Drug Administration recommends these four steps in preventing listeria contamination:

When eating raw produce, always rinse the items with running water.

Scrub food items to get rid of listeria-carrying dirt.

After washing and scrubbing raw produce, dry it using clean paper cloth.

The idea that just one person could be hurt and the whole scenario can be blown up to huge media coverage and attention – it’s worth asking: what’s the big deal if one person gets hurt?

Well, the big deal is that these injuries can happen to one person – but that one person can be absolutely anyone.

Accidents don’t pick and choose specific people; the universe isn’t quite so as specific to choose which life to make suffer as all that, no matter how much it may feel like that. That is why it is the responsibility of people to take care of each other and look out for each other – that is a standard of care that is thrust upon the shoulders on every person who has ever been alive.

Even the slightest bit of negligence from one person could mean everything wrong to another – and to that other’s family and friends, and perhaps even generations of that victim’s descendants long after either of you are gone.

According to the website of Ali Mokaram, personal injuries can range a variety of cases. Situations like birth defects to electrocution to premises liability can fall under the responsibility of personal injury. And that is because the legal definition for personal injury is that it is any injury that is dealt onto a person due the negligence (whether it is ignorantly or willfully done) of another person or party. There are so many different factors and permutations of those factors to consider that the idea of what constitutes as a personal injury alone can be mindboggling in itself.

So why do people make such a big deal out of it?

Because people want justice and people want to live in a world where they can be safe – and that can’t happen if even just one person gets away with being careless at the expense of someone else’s entire life.

Benicar (olmesartan) is one of a family of angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARB), also known as sartans which are used as treatment for hypertension. Diarrhea has always been known to be a side-effect of ARBs including olmesartan, so there is no surprise there. However, as mentioned in the website of law firm Williams Kherkher, an alarming number of cases has been reported to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as well as observed by researchers which strongly indicate that there a link between Benicar and a condition called sprue-like enteropathy. It is believed that drugs containing olmesartan alone among the ARBs are the only ones with this effect.

The condition is called sprue-like enteropathy because it mimics the symptoms of Celiac sprue, more commonly known as celiac disease which is a chronic medical condition resulting from an intolerance to gluten. Gluten is a protein present in wheat, rye, barley and related grains that when ingested by a celiac disease patient causes an immunological response, damaging the intestinal mucosa and villi, flattening it. This is called villous atrophy of the intestine, and results in the non-absorption of nutrients, diarrhea and weight loss. To test for celiac disease, the patient is tested for the presence of an antibody assay called the immunoglobulin A anti-tissue transglutaminase antibody or IgA-tTG. A patient with sprue-like enteropathy will exhibit the same symptoms but the IgA-tTG test will be negative.

Because the condition inhibits the absorption of food nutrients, a patient suffering from sprue-like enteropathy over a period of time is at risk of developing massive and irreversible intestinal damage that will affect other organs in the body. When celiac disease is ruled out, it is likely that the symptoms are being caused by Benicar, and should be discontinued under the doctor’s supervision.

If you have acquired sprue-like enteropathy because of Benicar, you may have already suffered from significant harm that would require costly medical intervention and care. Consult with a dangerous drugs lawyer in your area to go about getting compensation for your condition.

There has been a lot of attention focused on anticoagulants (blood thinners), mostly because of their serious and sometimes fatal side effects, but few really understand why anticoagulants are even prescribed when there is a risk of harm.

Anticoagulants are central to the prevention of strokes for the at-risk patient. This means people who have a high tendency to develop blood clots that could dislodge and cause a stroke, such as those with atrial fibrillation, are prime candidates for an anticoagulant prescription such as warfarin, which has been the standard medication since the 1950s, or the newer drugs, the injectable Pradaxa (dabigatran etexilate mesylate) or the oral Xarelto (rivaroxaban).

Anticoagulants do not break up existing clots; rather, they prevent its formation in the first place by inhibiting (blocking) one part or another of the coagulation cascade. It is like placing a finger in one section of a domino show; when the toppling tiles get to that point where the finger is, the show stops. Various drugs target different components of the coagulation process, but it all prevents the production of thrombin, a proteolytic enzyme that triggers the formation of fibrin from fibrinogen. It all sounds complicated and it is, but suffice it to say that anticoagulants keep the blood fluid by keeping clotting factors at bay. Anticoagulants can be dangerous if administered improperly, and should only be taken under a physician’s supervision.

A common problem of anticoagulant use is bleeding. Blood clots act as stoppers to a ruptured vein or other blood vessel to keep the blood in and facilitate repair of the damaged parts. An anticoagulant in the system will keep the blood from forming these clots. The risk of harm is high, but for some patients, the benefits outweigh the risks. However, there are some anticoagulants that appear to pose a higher risk than is acceptable. According to Xarelto lawyers, the newer anticoagulants lack an effective reversal agent to counteract uncontrollable bleeding, which can lead to fatal consequences.

If you have been seriously injured from using Xarelto despite faithfully following the doctor’s instructions, it may be because the drug is just too dangerous. Consult with Xarelto lawyers in your area for a more thorough understanding of your rights and the drug companies’ liabilities.

Some people may not be aware of the dangers of tailgating. Tailgating is a form of aggressive driving, where another driver is driving too close to the car in front of him. More often than not, tailgating drivers use this maneuver to express their impatience and frustration to the driver in front of them. Although it may seem harmless, in many occasions tailgating has lead to many rear-end accidents and often lead to road rage and retaliation incidents.

Experienced drivers do tailgating because of the technique called drafting. Drafting is often used in car racing because during drafting, there is less or no wind resistance to the car doing the tailgating because the one in front is taking it all, therefore making it easier to overtake to the front. For inexperienced drivers, these situations can cause severe accidents because it lowers the reaction time for any sudden changes. Another thing to lookout for during tailgating is turning into corners. Tailgating to another vehicle while turning corners is just an ego boost to many.

To know if you are tailgating, try practicing the “three second rule”; making sure that you have enough time to react to any sudden changes from the driver in front. Human’s reaction to danger takes about one to four seconds, therefore having enough space ensures that you can safely drive next to another driver and prevent any accidents that may happen on the road. Also, poor driving conditions can increase the chances of road accidents.

Penalties for tailgating can vary depending on each state law, but it often includes fines and demerits in accordance to how dangerous you were driving. Tailgating is prohibited, and is a negligent act that goes against road safety. Those who do these kinds of acts are punishable by the law.

The West Virginia coal mine explosion in April 2010, which claimed the lives of 29 people, oil rig south that blew up south of Louisiana, and the fire at a Washington State oil refinery, have all renewed the strict campaign of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in ensuring a workplace that is medically safe and compliant with US government’s safety standard.

OSHA, a branch of the federal government that enforces health and safety laws, was enacted to eradicate the threats and hazards of chemical exposure and unsafe work environments which caused millions of injuries and illnesses in the US each year. Prior to OSHA, workplace hazards (some of which were due to chemical exposure) accounted for about 300,000 job-related illnesses, 2.5 million job-related disabilities and 14,000 deaths. Its creation, however, mandated employers to ensure a safe and healthy workplace for all employees by determining exposure limits to toxic materials (like asbestos, lead and vinyl chloride), providing employees with personal protective equipment, evaluating the presence and effects of hazardous chemicals in their workplace and, if necessary, eliminating these.

Furthermore, in 1983, OSHA published the Hazard Communication Standard, the program that became famous under the heading, “Right to Know” laws, and which specifically required importers and manufacturers of chemicals to assess the dangers associated with the chemicals they manufacture and distribute and make sure that such information is included in the product’s container labels. The program also mandated all employers to train their employees whose job required exposure to hazardous chemicals.

Construction sites workers are the ones most prone to work-related accidents and that hundreds of thousands of workers are either severely injured or killed each year due to construction site accidents. There is another job, however, where workers may not be endangered by enormous equipment and dangerous tools, but are definitely prone to job-related illnesses and disabilities due to direct, and sometimes prolonged, exposure to toxic/dangerous chemicals – professional cleaning.

The cleaning industry is a very dynamic sector as it represents one of the largest services required by both public and private enterprises. Many risks and hazards threaten professional cleaners, though, including: exposure to hazardous substances, like biological agents which can cause asthma, allergies, and blood-borne infections; slips, trips, and falls, especially when working in a wet, slippery environment; and, electrical hazards from equipment used during work.

There are many other forms of workplace dangers employees may be exposed to, but most of these can be averted, if not completely prevented, with due diligence and strict compliance with OSHA stipulations, as well as through job hazard analysis and risk mapping. Greenfield, WI attorneys could help people who have been injured in workplace accidents through the difficult process of applying for workers’ compensation benefits after an injury. If worst comes to worst, a lawyer could also figure out whether or not a lawsuit is necessary.